This is a valuable testimony of a Mexican man who was transformed by the gospel through the simple act of having received a Bible. The Spirit of God brought about faith and repentance through the Scriptures and subsequently called González to be a messenger of that same good news. From what I’ve seen, not many more details are available (I want to know more!). Still, the details that we do know are a rich part of the legacy Latino(a) Protestants in America possess.
Snapshot 2: Treasuring the Bible
Missionaries to the American Southwest believed, as was with the case of Ambrosio González, that whoever read the Bible would convert to the Protestant faith. Historian Juan Francisco Martinez Guerra has uncovered remarkable stories along these lines, sharing how missionaries would go house-to-house giving away Bibles and reading the Scriptures aloud.[iv]
When people came to faith in Jesus through those Scriptures, the Bibles would be named after the family or community that possessed the Bible. For instance, according to Guerra, some of the most famous Bibles were the Chimayó, Sanchez, Madrid, Ocate, Peralta, and Gomez Bible.
The story of the Gomez Bible in Southern Colorado is fascinating. Juan Gomez purchased the Bible for the equivalent of $60 in cash, animals, and the usage of oxen in 1868.[v] The Gomez family held a Bible study in their home, which eventually became a church. From that home, other churches were planted in the region. The Gomez Bible remains today having been passed down from one generation to the next.
Similarly, the Ortega family acquired what is now the Chimayó Bible, named after a town in New Mexico, after the patriarch purchased it for the hefty price of $10 toward the end of the 1800’s. The Catholic priest in the town had forbidden possession of Bibles, but Ortega persisted in using his hard earned money to buy it.
He didn’t know how to read, but kept the Bible in his possession before handing it to his oldest son, Don Agapito, on his deathbed. Agapito learned to read as an adult and came to faith in Jesus through his reading of the Bible. He would use that very Bible the rest of his life.[vi] Don Agapito’s father, though illiterate, passed down a legacy of treasuring the scriptures that made a difference for eternity.
Snapshot 3: Theological Education and Storytelling
While it is a slowly growing trend for Latino(a) Protestants to enter into formal theological education, for numerous reasons such as limited opportunity, language, cost, lack of contextualized programs, and previous educational roadblocks – it’s a slow moving train that I hope begins to pick up steam.[vii] For instance, in a 2010 ATS report, while Latino(a) involvement in theological education has increased, Hispanics are still the most underrepresented ethnicity at 5.7 percent of theological students versus 16.3 percent (2010) of the US population.[viii]
